Sox, Jays highlight the Gateway’s favourite Fall Classic moments

With the chill of fall in the air, baseball fans know it's playoff time. Here's a look at some of the Gateway's favourite moments from the World Series: from curse breakers to upside-down flags, the series has seen it all over the years.

Tagging, rather than throwing out a runner en route to first base, is a rare occurrence in baseball. Much to the Yankees’ dismay, catcher Jorge Posada was tagged out by Florida Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett for the final out of the 2003 World Series. Posada barely left the batter’s box before Beckett scooped up a trickler back to the mound and pressed his glove into the Yankee’s pinstripes. When Posada hit the little knubber, you could tell he was done. There was no way he could beat out the bunt-like hit with his ponderous speed. My educated guess is that Posada runs a 30-second 60-yard dash. Why did it have to be Posada running to first? Why not Jeter or Soriano?

As a fan of the Evil Empire, the thoughts racing through my mind as Beckett approached Posada were: “It’s actually going to happen, the Yankees are going to lose — ” and then boom, it was over. Up until the final out, I basically lived in ignorance. No way could New York lose the series. Then your world comes crashing down, and you realize that at school, your friends will make fun of you because your favourite team lost. Then you want to stay home, but you can’t. Finally, however, I found solace in the fact that they’ve won 26 titles. The Marlins have ... well, two.

While the Yanks haven’t won since 2000, we all know that 2009 is the year. They’ll get it done.

The 1992 World Series has to be one of the most memorable moments in baseball history for Canadians. Even though I was only five years old when this momentous occasion shifted the focus of “America’s pastime" to Canada, it still rings bells of glory in my mind. That year saw the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Atlanta Braves in what was the first World Series to be played outside of the United States.

From the beginning, the Blue Jays were in tough, splitting the first two games in Atlanta. In the first match Atlanta’s Tom Glavine narrowly beat out Jays' pitcher Jack Morris, in a close 3–1 battle.

The second game got the Jays back on track, when they squeaked out a come from behind 5–4 win. With only minor problems with Canada’s flag (The U.S.M.C. flew it upside down) the game otherwise went off without a hitch.

Heading to Toronto for the first time in MLB history, the Jays pulled off two close wins (1–0, 2–1). In the first match, Atlanta’s infamous Bobby Cox threw a helmet from the dugout protesting a strikeout. The U.S.M.C. also apologized and flew the Canadian flag correctly this time around.

Up three games to one, there was hope the World Series would be won on Canadian soil in game five. That hope was soon dashed when Atlanta crushed the Jays 7–2. Jack Morris, the Jay’s ace in the regular season, got his second loss in the Series.

Things then shifted back south of the 49th parallel for game six. In what were the most intense moments in Canadian baseball, the Jays and Braves battled straight through to extra innings. In the top of the 11th with the score tied 2–2, the Jays had two runners on base, two outs, and a full count to Dave Winfield. Winfield rose to the occasion, hitting a double down the left field line, which scored both runners. Atlanta managed to get one run, but that wasn’t enough. The 1992 World Series belonged to the Toronto Blue Jays. For the first time in history, baseball’s crown headed north of the border.

Both the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins came into the 1991 World Series riding high — the Twins by way of their dismantling of the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, and the Braves by virtue of taking games six and seven in Pittsburgh against the Pirates — and their October clash is one of Major League Baseball’s most storied postseason series.

The series was expected to be dominated by pitching, and save for a pair of innings in game five, it was. In five of the seven games, there were not more than seven runs scored. Moreover, five of the seven games were decided by one run, including three games that needed extra innings to be decided.

The first two extra-inning affairs were split. Atlanta won game three 5–4 in 12 innings and the Twins slid past the Braves 4–3 in 11 innings in game six to force a one-game standoff for the World Series crown.

Game seven pitted Atlanta’s young flame-thrower, John Smoltz, against Minnesota’s ace and future Jay, Jack Morris. The two had hooked up in games one and four, but in the series finale both pitchers clamped down on the opposing offences. Smoltz pitched seven scoreless innings, but was yanked in the eighth.

Morris bested Smoltz by throwing 10 shutout innings, and in the bottom of the tenth Morris’ phenomenal effort paid off when pinch-hitter Gene Larkin knocked a bases loaded first-pitch fastball to the gap to give the Twins a 1–0 win and their second World Series title in five years.

Coming into the 2004 MLB season, the Boston Red Sox had gone 86 seasons without winning a World Series. This had been attributed to the “Curse of the Bambino,” which came into affect after the Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919. After making a miraculous comeback in the ALCS after being down 3–0 to the Yankees in 2004, the Red Sox went on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Coming into the World Series, Boston possessed an offence powered by Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Orlando Cabrera, and Johnny Damon, and a pitching staff that included the likes of Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Bronson Arroyo, and Derek Lowe. The team that St. Louis fielded was no slouch either, with a lineup featuring Albert Pujols, Canadian Larry Walker, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds; however, their pitching wasn’t quite what the Red Sox had as Chris Carpenter was their only bonafide star.

Due to this difference in pitching between the two teams, the Red Sox disposed of the Cardinals in a four-game sweep. Normally you wouldn’t get all that excited over a sweep however, but after all the abysmal luck the Red Sox had suffered over the prior 86 years and the taunting that this fanbase had endured at the hands of Yankees fans for so long, it was great to see. The fact that it is was a historic World Series win for one of the most iconic franchises in baseball was compelling.